Also American

Library

55,246 resources — aggregated, dated, and cited for further study.

274 resources

Website· 1998
Africans in America -- From Indentured Servitude to Racial Slavery (PBS narrative essay)
PBS / WGBH
Website· 1998
Africans in America -- Part 1 Resource Bank (educators' companion site)
PBS / WGBH
Website· 1998
Africans in America -- Part 2: Freedom and Bondage in the Colonial Era (PBS companion narrative)
PBS / WGBH
Website· 1998
Africans in America — Part 3: The Black Church (Richard Allen)
PBS / WGBH
Website· 1998
Africans in America Part 4 — Judgment Day: Primary Sources & Scholarly Commentary
PBS / WGBH
Website· 1998
Africans in America – The African Slave Trade and the Middle Passage (PBS narrative)
PBS / WGBH
Website· 1998
Africans in America -- The Growth of Slavery in North America (including the Stono Rebellion, PBS narrative)
PBS / WGBH
Website
Aaron Douglas — biography
Britannica

Painter of the Renaissance.

Website· Primary
About the Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The official CDC account of the 40-year U.S. Public Health Service syphilis study.

Website
Aetna acknowledges issuing slave policies
Democracy Now!

Aetna's 2000 apology for insuring enslaved people.

Website
African Americans at the Olympic Games
Smithsonian NMAAHC

Includes the Smith–Carlos 1968 podium protest.

Website
African Americans in St. Augustine, 1565–1821
National Park Service

Africans present at the 1565 founding of the oldest U.S. city.

Website
African Roots, Carolina Gold
S.C. Sea Grant Consortium

How Rice Coast knowledge built the Lowcountry rice economy.

Website
Alain Locke — biography
Britannica

The Dean of the Harlem Renaissance.

Website
A'Lelia Walker — biography
BlackPast

Patron and salon host.

Website
Alice Walker — biography
Britannica

Author of The Color Purple.

Website
All Music Is Black Music
Smithsonian NMAAHC

How Black music sits at the center of American musical history.

Website
All Power to the People! (the Black Panther Party)
Smithsonian NMAAHC

Newton, Seale, and the Panthers' Ten-Point Program.

Website
Alvin Ailey (1931–1989)
BlackPast

Biography of the choreographer.

Website
American Sugar Refining Company (history)
Wikipedia

The Havemeyer/Domino sugar empire and slave-grown cane.

Website
Amzie Moore — biography
BlackPast

Mississippi NAACP veteran who brought SNCC to the Delta.

Website· Primary
An enslaved servant's Brooks Brothers coat
Historic New Orleans Collection

Brooks Brothers' livery for the enslaved.

Website
Angela Davis — biography
BlackPast

Activist-scholar of abolition.

Website
An Introduction to the Harlem Renaissance
Poetry Foundation

A curated collection of Renaissance poems, essays, and audio.

Website
Anthony Johnson (?–1670)
BlackPast

The free Black Virginian who became a landowner on the Eastern Shore.

Website
Aretha Franklin (1942–2018)
BlackPast

Biography of the Queen of Soul.

Website
Arna Bontemps — biography
Britannica

Poet, novelist, archivist.

Website
Arthur Ashe — biography
Britannica

Tennis champion and humanitarian.

Website
Audre Lorde — biography
Poetry Foundation

Black feminist poet and essayist.

Website
Augusta Savage (1892–1962) — biography
BlackPast

Harlem Renaissance sculptor and teacher.

Website
Augusta Savage — biography
Britannica

Sculptor and educator.

Website
Bacon's Rebellion (1676–1677)
Encyclopedia Virginia

The uprising linked to the hardening of racial slavery in Virginia.

Website
Bail Reform (Vera Institute)
Vera Institute of Justice

How money bail disproportionately detains Black and poor defendants before trial.

Website
Barack Obama — biography
Britannica

The 44th U.S. President.

Website
Barbara Jordan — biography
BlackPast

Constitutional orator and congresswoman.

Website
B.B. King — biography
Britannica

The King of the Blues.

Website
Before the Civil War, New Orleans Was the Center of the U.S. Slave Trade
Smithsonian Magazine

New Orleans as the hub of the domestic slave trade.

Website
Bending Toward Justice: The Ocoee Massacre
University of Central Florida

The deadliest Election Day massacre in U.S. history (1920).

Website
Benjamin Banneker (1731–1806)
BlackPast

Biography of the mathematician and astronomer.

Website
Berry Gordy
Britannica

Biography of the founder of Motown.

Website
Bessie Smith (1894–1937)
BlackPast

Biography of the Empress of the Blues.

Website
Beyoncé — biography
Britannica

Most-decorated Grammy artist.

Website
Billie Holiday
Smithsonian NMAAHC

Biography of "Lady Day."

Website
Bill Russell — biography
Britannica

11-time NBA champion and civil-rights leader.

Website
Black Lives Matter (official)
Black Lives Matter

The movement's official organization and resources.

Website
Black Soldiers in the U.S. Military During the Civil War (National Archives primary sources)
National Archives
Website
Blanche K. Bruce — biography
BlackPast

First Black senator to serve a full term.

Website
Bobby Seale — biography
BlackPast

Co-founder of the Black Panther Party.

Website
Bob Moses — biography
BlackPast

SNCC strategist of Mississippi voter registration.

Website
Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) — biography
BlackPast

The founder of Tuskegee and accommodationist leader.

Website
Building the President's House with Enslaved Labor
White House Historical Association

The enslaved people who built the White House.

Website
Cab Calloway — biography
Britannica

Cotton Club bandleader.

Website
Carter G. Woodson (1875–1950) — biography
BlackPast

The Father of Black History.

Website
Celebrating Black History Month (origins of Negro History Week)
Smithsonian NMAAHC

How Carter G. Woodson created what became Black History Month.

Website
Charles Drew (1904–1950)
BlackPast

Biography of the blood-bank pioneer.

Website
Charlie Parker — biography
Britannica

Architect of bebop.

Website· Primary
Chronicling America — historic Black newspapers
Library of Congress / NEH

Searchable digitized American newspaper pages, 1789–1963.

Website· Primary
Chronicling America — the Tulsa Race Massacre
Library of Congress

Contemporary newspaper coverage of the 1921 massacre.

Website· Primary
Chronicling America — the Tulsa Race Massacre
Library of Congress

Contemporary newspaper coverage of the 1921 massacre.

Website
Chuck D — biography
Encyclopedia.com

Public Enemy frontman.

Website· Primary
Civil Rights Movement Archive
Civil Rights Movement Veterans

A primary archive built by veterans of the movement — documents, photos, and accounts.

Website
Claude McKay — biography
Britannica

Poet of "If We Must Die."

Website
Claudette Colvin — biography
Britannica

Arrested before Rosa Parks; plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle.

Website
Colonization of Angola (Luanda)
World History Encyclopedia

Portuguese Angola and Luanda, engine of the West-Central African trade.

Website
Countee Cullen — biography
Britannica

Acclaimed Renaissance poet.

Website
Crash Course Black American History (full playlist)
Clint Smith

The complete 51-episode series; early episodes cover 1400s–1790s.

Website
Criminal Justice Reform (EJI)
Equal Justice Initiative

Overview of mass incarceration and its racial disparities.

Website
Crispus Attucks
National Park Service

The mixed-ancestry sailor killed in the 1770 Boston Massacre.

Website
C.T. Vivian — biography
The HistoryMakers

SCLC leader of the Selma confrontation.

Website
Daisy Bates — biography
Britannica

Mentor of the Little Rock Nine.

Website
Daniel Hale Williams — biography
Britannica

Heart-surgery pioneer.

Website
Denmark Vesey Conspiracy of 1822
BlackPast

Vesey's Charleston conspiracy and its violent aftermath.

Website
Diana Ross — biography
Britannica

Supremes leader and solo star.

Website
Dismal Swamp Company
George Washington's Mount Vernon

Washington''s land-speculation venture that used enslaved workers to dig the swamp''s ditches.

Website
Dizzy Gillespie — biography
Britannica

Bebop co-founder.

Website
Dorothy Height — biography
BlackPast

President of the National Council of Negro Women.

Website
Dorothy West — biography
Britannica

Youngest Renaissance writer.

Website
Duke Ellington
Kennedy Center

Biography of the composer and bandleader.

Website
Elaine Massacre: Red Summer in Arkansas
Univ. of Arkansas at Little Rock

The 1919 Elaine massacre, triggered by Black sharecroppers unionizing.

Website
Elizabeth Key (fl. 1655–1660)
Encyclopedia Virginia

The woman of African descent who won an early freedom suit.

Website
Ella Fitzgerald
Britannica

Biography of the First Lady of Song.

Website
Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument
National Park Service

The 2023 national monument preserving three Till sites in Mississippi and Chicago.

Website
Equal Justice Initiative
Bryan Stevenson

Nonprofit confronting mass incarceration, racial injustice, and the legacy of slavery.

Website
Faith Ringgold — biography
Britannica

Story-quilt artist and author.

Website· Primary
FDR Library — Marian Anderson
FDR Presidential Library

Documents on the 1939 Lincoln Memorial concert and Eleanor Roosevelt's DAR resignation.

Website
Florence Mills — biography
Britannica

Jazz Age stage star.

Website
Fort Mose, Florida (1738–1820)
BlackPast

The first legally sanctioned free Black town in the present-day U.S.

Website
Francis L. Cardozo — biography
South Carolina Encyclopedia

First Black statewide officeholder.

Website
Fred Shuttlesworth — biography
Britannica

The driving minister of the Birmingham campaign.

Website
Freedom Riders National Monument
National Park Service

The NPS site at the Anniston bus-burning location.

Website
Freedom Rides (1961)
BlackPast

CORE's 1961 rides to desegregate interstate travel.

Website
Gabriel's Conspiracy (1800)
Encyclopedia Virginia

The planned 1800 Richmond-area revolt led by the enslaved blacksmith Gabriel.

Website
Garrett Morgan (1877–1963) — biography
BlackPast

The self-taught inventor of the traffic signal and smoke hood.

Website
GEO Group — corporate profile
AFSC Investigate

GEO Group's detention labor record.

Website· Primary
Georgetown apologizes for the 1838 sale of 272 enslaved people
Georgetown University

The university's reckoning with the GU272 sale.

Website
George Washington Carver
National Park Service

Biography of the agricultural scientist.

Website· Primary
Germantown Friends' Protest Against Slavery, 1688
National Park Service

The first written protest against slavery in the English colonies.

Website
Gloria Richardson — biography
BlackPast

Leader of the Cambridge Movement.

Website
Gordon Parks — biography
Britannica

Photographer and pioneering Black film director.

Website
Grandmaster Flash — biography
Encyclopedia.com

Hip-hop turntable pioneer.

Website
Greensboro Sit-Ins (1960)
BlackPast

The February–July 1960 lunch-counter sit-ins.

Website
Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor
National Park Service

The coastal culture with the deepest West African retentions in the U.S.

Website
Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor -- official site
Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor (U.S. Congress-established National Heritage Area)
Website
Harry Belafonte — biography
Britannica

Entertainer and civil-rights organizer.

Website
HeLa Cells: A Lasting Contribution to Biomedical Research
National Institutes of Health

NIH resource on the HeLa cell line and the legacy of Henrietta Lacks.

Website
Henry McNeal Turner — biography
BlackPast

AME bishop and emigrationist.

Website
Highlander Research and Education Center
Highlander Center

The still-operating training ground for movement organizers.

Website
History of Racial Injustice: Convict Leasing
Equal Justice Initiative

The convict-leasing-to-private-prison through-line.

Website
HomeTeam History (YouTube channel)
HomeTeam History

Channel devoted to precolonial African kingdoms — Mali, Songhai, Kongo, Ndongo, Dahomey, Benin, Asante.

Website
How Many Slaves Landed in the U.S.?
PBS

Of ~12.5 million embarked, only ~388,000 were shipped directly to North America.

Website
Huey P. Newton — biography
BlackPast

Co-founder of the Black Panther Party.

Website
Ida B. Wells
Smithsonian NMAAHC

The journalist and anti-lynching crusader.

Website
Igbo Landing
Britannica

The 1803 act of resistance off the Georgia coast.

Website
Jackie Robinson (1919–1972)
BlackPast

Biography of the man who integrated MLB.

Website
Jack Johnson, the boxer who defied America
Smithsonian NMAAHC

The first Black heavyweight champion.

Website
Jacob Lawrence — The Migration Series
MoMA

The painter and his 60-panel Migration Series.

Website
Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series
Jacob Lawrence

All 60 panels of the Migration Series, online.

Website
James Baldwin
Britannica

Biography of the novelist and essayist.

Website
James Brown (1933–2006) — biography
BlackPast

The Godfather of Soul and architect of funk.

Website
James Farmer — biography
BlackPast

Co-founder of CORE.

Website
James T. Rapier — biography
BlackPast

Alabama congressman and labor organizer.

Website
James Weldon Johnson — biography
Poetry Foundation

Poet and NAACP leader.

Website
Jay-Z — biography
Britannica

Rapper-entrepreneur.

Website
Jean-Michel Basquiat — biography
Britannica

The neo-expressionist painter.

Website
Jean Toomer — biography
BlackPast

Author of "Cane."

Website
Jefferson Long — biography
BlackPast

Georgia's first Black congressman.

Website
Jesse Owens
Britannica

Biography of the 1936 Olympic champion.

Website
Jo Ann Robinson — biography
Smithsonian NMAAHC

Whose leaflets launched the Montgomery bus boycott.

Website
John Coltrane
Britannica

Biography of the jazz saxophonist and composer.

Website
John Roy Lynch — biography
BlackPast

MS congressman and historian.

Website
Josephine Baker
Smithsonian NMAAHC

Biography of the entertainer and Resistance agent.

Website
Josiah T. Walls — biography
BlackPast

Florida's first Black congressman.

Website
JPMorgan Chase acknowledges links to slavery (2005)
NBC News

The bank's 2005 disclosure and apology.

Website
Kamala Harris — biography
Britannica

The first Black and Asian American VP.

Website
Kara Walker — biography
Britannica

Silhouette installation artist.

Website
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — biography
Britannica

Six-time NBA champion.

Website· Primary
Katherine Johnson — NASA biography
NASA

Biography of the NASA mathematician.

Website
Kingdom of Kongo
World History Encyclopedia

The Central African kingdom, Portuguese contact, and the slave trade.

Website
Langston Hughes
Poetry Foundation

Biography and poems of the Harlem Renaissance poet.

Website
Lauryn Hill — biography
Britannica

Maker of "The Miseducation."

Website· Primary
Library of Congress — African American History (research guide)
Library of Congress

Digitized collections documenting 400+ years of the African American experience.

Website· Primary
Library of Congress — African American History (research guide)
Library of Congress

Digitized collections documenting 400+ years of the African American experience.

Website
Little Richard — biography
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Architect of rock and roll.

Website· Primary
Lloyd's of London and the transatlantic slave trade
Lloyd's of London

Lloyd's acknowledgment of insuring the slave trade.

Website
Lord Dunmore's Proclamation
Encyclopedia Virginia

The 1775 offer of freedom to enslaved people who joined the British.

Website
Louis Armstrong (1901–1971)
BlackPast

Biography of the trumpeter who shaped jazz.

Website
Loving v. Virginia (1967)
BlackPast

The case that legalized interracial marriage nationwide.

Website
Lowell mills and the Southern cotton connection
National Park Service

How Lowell's mills depended on slave-grown cotton.

Website· Primary
Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror
Equal Justice Initiative

EJI''s report documenting more than 4,000 racial-terror lynchings (1877–1950) used to enforce the racial caste hierarchy.

Website
Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror
Equal Justice Initiative

EJI's landmark report documenting 4,400+ racial-terror lynchings.

Website
Madam C.J. Walker, beauty-industry pioneer
Smithsonian NMAAHC

The entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Website
Mae Jemison
Britannica

Biography of the first Black woman in space.

Website
Maggie Lena Walker — biography
National Park Service

The first Black woman to charter and run a bank.

Website
Mahalia Jackson (1911–1972)
BlackPast

Biography of the Queen of Gospel.

Website
Make Good the Promises: Reconstruction and Its Legacies
Smithsonian NMAAHC

The museum's exhibition on Reconstruction through a Black lens.

Website
Mali Empire (overview)
World History Encyclopedia

The West African empire, its gold trade, and Islamic scholarship at Timbuktu.

Website· Primary
Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America
Robert K. Nelson et al.

The definitive interactive archive of 1930s HOLC "redlining" maps.

Website
Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) — biography
BlackPast

The founder of the UNIA and Black nationalist leader.

Website
Marie Maynard Daly — biography
Science History Institute

First Black woman PhD in chemistry.

Website
Marvin Gaye — biography
Britannica

Motown's soul auteur.

Website
Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955) — biography
BlackPast

The educator and New Deal adviser.

Website
Massacre and Resilience in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Smithsonian NMAAHC

The 1921 destruction of Greenwood — "Black Wall Street."

Website
Maya Angelou
Poetry Foundation

Biography and poems of the writer.

Website
Michael Jackson — biography
Britannica

The King of Pop.

Website
Michael Jordan — biography
Britannica

Basketball's greatest.

Website
Miles Davis — biography
Britannica

Perpetual jazz innovator.

Website
Muddy Waters — biography
Britannica

Father of Chicago blues.

Website
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016)
BlackPast

Biography of "The Greatest."

Website
Musical Crossroads
Smithsonian NMAAHC

The museum's exhibition tracing African American music across its history.

Website
NAACP — Our History
NAACP

The founding and history of the nation's oldest civil-rights organization.

Website· Primary
National Archives — Black History portal
U.S. National Archives

Federal records and research guides spanning slavery to the present.

Website· Primary
National Archives — March on Washington
U.S. National Archives

Records and photographs of the 1963 March on Washington.

Website
National Juneteenth Museum — Official Site
National Juneteenth Museum

The official site of the National Juneteenth Museum under development in Fort Worth, Texas — the first museum dedicated exclusively to preserving Juneteenth history and connecting stories of freedom to present-day liberation.

Website
National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom
National Park Service

The NPS program coordinating 800+ verified UGRR sites across the U.S. and Canada.

Website
National Wildlife Refuges with Ties to African American History
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Official account of freedom-seeker settlements and Underground Railroad ties in the Great Dismal Swamp.

Website
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Smithsonian NMAAHC

The 1831 Southampton revolt and its consequences.

Website
Nella Larsen — biography
Britannica

Novelist of racial passing.

Website
New York City Slave Uprising (1712)
BlackPast

The 1712 armed revolt and its violent suppression.

Website· Primary
New York Life — Acknowledging our past
New York Life

The Nautilus policies on enslaved people.

Website
Niagara Movement (1905–1909)
BlackPast

The militant forerunner of the NAACP.

Website
Nina Simone — biography
BlackPast

The High Priestess of Soul.

Website· Primary
NMAAHC — Slavery and Freedom
Smithsonian NMAAHC

The museum's narrative of slavery, emancipation, and the Thirteenth Amendment.

Website· Primary
NMAAHC — The Harlem Renaissance
Smithsonian NMAAHC

The 1918–mid-1930s flowering of Black art, literature, and music.

Website· Primary
NPS — 1619 and the 400 Years of African American History Commission
National Park Service

How the federal government frames the 1619 Point Comfort arrival.

Website· Primary
NPS — Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley
National Park Service

The national monument and history of Emmett Till's murder and its legacy.

Website· Primary
NYPL Digital Collections — the Great Migration
New York Public Library

Digitized photographs and documents of the Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance.

Website
Octavia Butler — biography
Britannica

Pioneer of Afrofuturism.

Website
Ole Miss Riot (1962)
BlackPast

The violent 1962 integration of the University of Mississippi.

Website
Oscar Micheaux (1884–1951)
BlackPast

Biography of the pioneering filmmaker.

Website
Patricia Bath (1942–2019) — biography
BlackPast

The ophthalmologist who invented the Laserphaco Probe.

Website
Paul Robeson (1898–1976)
BlackPast

Biography of the singer, actor, and activist.

Website
Percy Julian — biography
Britannica

The chemist who synthesized medicines from plants.

Website
Petit Marronage in the Great Dismal Swamp
Encyclopedia Virginia

Communities of self-emancipated people in the swamp.

Website
Phillis Wheatley (1754–1784)
BlackPast

Biography of the first published African American poet.

Website
Prince — biography
Britannica

The virtuoso behind "Purple Rain."

Website
Queen Nzinga (1583–1663)
BlackPast

The Ndongo/Matamba queen who resisted Portuguese conquest for decades.

Website
Quincy Jones — biography
Kennedy Center

The legendary producer and composer.

Website
Ralph Abernathy — biography
BlackPast

King's closest partner and SCLC successor.

Website
Ralph Ellison — biography
Britannica

The author of "Invisible Man."

Website
Ray Charles — biography
Britannica

The genius who invented soul.

Website
Richard H. Cain — biography
BlackPast

AME minister and congressman.

Website
Richard Wright — biography
BlackPast

Author of Native Son and Black Boy.

Website
Robert Brown Elliott — biography
BlackPast

SC congressman and orator.

Website
Robert C. De Large — biography
BlackPast

SC congressman and 1868 delegate.

Website
Robert F. Williams — biography
NCpedia

Advocate of armed self-defense; author of "Negroes with Guns."

Website
Robert Johnson — biography
Britannica

Delta blues legend.

Website
Robert Sengstacke Abbott (1870–1940) — biography
BlackPast

Founder of the Chicago Defender.

Website
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — Inductees
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Profiles of every inductee with playlists and footage.

Website
Romare Bearden — biography
Britannica

The preeminent American collagist.

Website
Rosewood Massacre (1923)
BlackPast

The 1923 destruction of a Black Florida town.

Website
Ruby Dee — biography
BlackPast

Actress and activist.

Website
Sam Cooke — biography
Britannica

The King of Soul.

Website
Sammy Davis Jr. — biography
Britannica

The barrier-breaking entertainer.

Website
San Miguel de Gualdape Slave Rebellion (1526)
BlackPast

The first enslaved Africans in what is now the U.S., and their 1526 revolt.

Website· Primary
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
New York Public Library

The world's leading research library on the African diaspora; 10M+ items.

Website
Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail
National Park Service

The NPS trail covering the 1965 voting-rights marches.

Website
Septima Clark — biography
BlackPast

Founder of the Citizenship Schools.

Website
Serena Williams — biography
Britannica

The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion.

Website
Shirley Chisholm — biography
Britannica

First Black congresswoman.

Website
Sidney Poitier (1927–2022)
BlackPast

Biography of the Oscar-winning actor.

Website
Silver Bluff Baptist Church (1773– )
BlackPast

Often called the first Black church in America.

Website
Sister Rosetta Tharpe — biography
Britannica

Godmother of rock and roll.

Website
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing (1963)
BlackPast

The KKK bombing that killed four girls on September 15, 1963.

Website
Slavery and the railroads
Univ. of Nebraska — Railroads & the Making of Modern America

Enslaved labor that built the South's railroads.

Website· Primary
SlaveVoyages — Introductory Maps to the Transatlantic Slave Trade
SlaveVoyages

Maps of where captives embarked in Africa and disembarked in the Americas.

Website· Primary
SlaveVoyages — Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
SlaveVoyages

Searchable database of 36,000+ documented slave voyages and captive records.

Website
Smithsonian Jazz
Smithsonian

Jazz collections, oral histories, and exhibitions.

Website
Smokey Robinson — biography
Britannica

Architect of the Motown sound.

Website
SNCC Digital Gateway
SNCC Digital Gateway (Duke)

A curated history of SNCC with documents, profiles, and timelines.

Website
Songhai Empire (ca. 1375–1591)
BlackPast

Songhai's rise under Askia Muhammad and its fall at Tondibi.

Website
Spike Lee — biography
Britannica

Provocative filmmaker.

Website
Stevie Wonder — biography
Britannica

The Motown prodigy and musical giant.

Website
Stono Rebellion (1739)
BlackPast

The largest slave revolt in the British mainland colonies, led by an Angolan named Jemmy.

Website· Primary
Stop-and-Frisk Data (NYCLU)
New York Civil Liberties Union

NYPD stop-and-frisk data showing Black and Latino people overwhelmingly targeted.

Website
The 1898 Wilmington Coup — research guide
UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries

Documents and figures of the only successful coup d'état on U.S. soil.

Website
The Alabama origin of Lehman Brothers
Business Alabama

Lehman's start as a cotton brokerage.

Website
The Bench by the Road — Sullivan's Island
National Park Service

Charleston was the entry point for nearly half of captive Africans brought to North America.

Website
The Chesapeake Slave Trade: Regional Patterns, African Origins
The History Cooperative

Most Africans landing in the Chesapeake came from West-Central Africa and the Bight of Biafra.

Website
The Children's Crusade (Birmingham, 1963)
Smithsonian NMAAHC

The May 1963 youth marches that turned the tide in Birmingham.

Website
The Colfax Massacre (1873)
BlackPast

The 1873 mass killing that signaled Reconstruction's violent collapse.

Website· Primary
The Colored Conventions Project
University of Delaware

A digital archive of the 19th-century Black organizing conventions.

Website
The Domestic Slave Trade
Encyclopedia Virginia

The forced interstate trafficking that tore apart enslaved families.

Website
The Foundations of Black Power
Smithsonian NMAAHC

The roots of Black Power in Malcolm X, SNCC, and 1966.

Website
The Historical Legacy of the March on Washington
Smithsonian NMAAHC

Why the 1963 march mattered for civil-rights legislation.

Website
The Jim Crow Museum
Ferris State University

A teaching museum of racist artifacts documenting the Jim Crow era and its imagery.

Website· Primary
The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Johns Hopkins''s official account of the 1951 HeLa cells taken without consent.

Website
Thelonious Monk — biography
Britannica

Modern-jazz pianist-composer.

Website
The Lorraine Motel (Memphis)
National Park Service

The site of King's April 4, 1968 assassination.

Website
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute
Stanford University

The authoritative archive of King's papers and movement history.

Website
The Medical Exploitation of Black Women
Equal Justice Initiative

Sims's experiments, forced sterilization, and Tuskegee in one through-line.

Website
The Negro National League Is Founded
National Baseball Hall of Fame

How Rube Foster built the Negro Leagues in 1920.

Website
The Notorious B.I.G. — biography
Britannica

East Coast hip-hop titan.

Website
The Planter — Robert Smalls
National Park Service

How Robert Smalls seized a Confederate steamer and sailed it to freedom.

Website
The Reconstruction Era (overview)
National Park Service

NPS overview tied to the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park.

Website
The Royal African Company
BlackPast

England's chartered slaving monopoly that supplied the colonies.

Website
The Scottsboro Boys
Smithsonian NMAAHC

The nine teenagers falsely accused in 1931 Alabama.

Website
The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Middle Passage
Encyclopedia Virginia

Scholarly overview of the 12.5-million-person forced migration.

Website
The United States Colored Troops (1863–1865)
BlackPast

Overview of the ~175 regiments in which Black men served the Union.

Website
The Wall Street slave market of 1711
NYC Parks

The municipal slave market on Wall Street.

Website
Tina Turner — biography
Britannica

Queen of Rock and Roll.

Website
Toni Morrison
Britannica

Biography of the Nobel laureate.

Website
Tunis Campbell — biography
BlackPast

Coastal Georgia political organizer.

Website
Tupac Shakur — biography
Britannica

Rapper-poet icon.

Website
U.S. Capitol — Slave Labor Commemorative Marker
Architect of the Capitol

How enslaved laborers built the Capitol.

Website
Wallace Thurman — biography
BlackPast

Editor of "Fire!!"

Website
Walter White (1893–1955) — biography
BlackPast

The NAACP leader and anti-lynching investigator.

Website
Watts Rebellion (August 1965)
BlackPast

The August 1965 Los Angeles uprising and its aftermath.

Website
W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963) — biography
BlackPast

The sociologist, NAACP co-founder, and editor of The Crisis.

Website
W.E.B. Du Bois — biography
Britannica

Foremost Black intellectual; editor of The Crisis.

Website
Whitney Houston — biography
Britannica

"The Voice."

Website
Whitney Young — biography
BlackPast

National Urban League president.

Website
Wilma Rudolph (1940–1994)
BlackPast

Biography of the Olympic sprinter.

Website
Wilmington Race Riot of 1898
BlackPast

The 1898 coup that overthrew an elected biracial government.

Website
Zora Neale Hurston
Britannica

Biography of the novelist and anthropologist.